Buchner reaction experimental

Place 18 g. (12 ml.) of fuming nitric acid, sp. gr. 1 5, and 30 g. (16-5 ml.) of concentrated sulphuric acid and a few fragments of broken glass in a 250 or 500 ml. round-bottomed flask. Add gradually, in small portions, 14 g. of p-nitrotoluene do not allow the temperature to rise above 50 and cool the flask, if necessary, by immersion in cold water. Place a small funnel in the mouth of the flask and heat on a water bath at 90-95° for 30 minutes. Allow to cool almost to the laboratory temperature and pour the reaction mixture slowly into about 500 ml. of ice water containing a few small pieces of ice. Filter the crude dinitrotoluene through a Buchner funnel at the pump, wash it thoroughly with cold water, and drain as completely as possible. RecrystalUse from the minimum volume of hot methyl alcohol (flask, reflux condenser, and water bath experimental details as in Section IV,12). The yield of pure 2 4-dinitrotoluene, m.p. 71°, is 12 -5 g. 

Add 25 g. of finely-powdered, dry acetanilide to 25 ml. of glacial acetic acid contained in a 500 ml. beaker introduce into the well-stirred mixture 92 g. (50 ml.) of concentrated sulphuric acid. The mixture becomes warm and a clear solution results. Surround the beaker with a freezing mixture of ice and salt, and stir the solution mechanically. Support a separatory funnel, containing a cold mixture of 15 -5 g. (11 ml.) of concentrated nitric acid and 12 -5 g. (7 ml.) of concentrated sulphuric acid, over the beaker. When the temperature of the solution falls to 0-2°, run in the acid mixture gradually while the temperature is maintained below 10°. After all the mixed acid has been added, remove the beaker from the freezing mixture, and allow it to stand at room temperature for 1 hour. Pour the reaction mixture on to 250 g. of crushed ice (or into 500 ml. of cold water), whereby the crude nitroacetanilide is at once precipitated. Allow to stand for 15 minutes, filter with suction on a Buchner funnel, wash it thoroughly with cold water until free from acids (test the wash water), and drain well. Recrystallise the pale yellow product from alcohol or methylated spirit (see Section IV,12 for experimental details), filter at the pump, wash with a httle cold alcohol, and dry in the air upon filter paper. [The yellow o-nitroacetanihde remains in the filtrate.] The yield of p-nitroacetanihde, a colourless crystalline sohd of m.p. 214°, is 20 g. 

So the idea, the concept of enzyme action as a general principle in biochemical reactions was that of Berthelot in the 1850 s, as to the priority. The experimental verification however was Buchner s work, and he earned the merit for it. 

The reaction of diazoalkanes with carbonyl-containing compounds dates back to observations made by Buchner and Curtius as early as 1885 [56]. Although others examined this novel reactivity pattern [57,58], Schlotterbeck is largely credited with uncovering the merger of aldehydes and diazoalkanes in 1907 [59, 60]. Schlotterbeck was able to confirm by careful experimentation that various aliphatic aldehydes afforded the corresponding methyl ketones when treated with diazomethane. The reaction of aldehydes with diazomethane to form methyl ketones (Scheme 3) later became known as the Buchner-Curtius—Schlotterbeck reaction [61]. Application of this chain elongation to ketmies and eventually cycloalkanones did not come until several decades later and required a critical new discovery. 

---